Special to The Patriot-NewsEdward Bechtel, of Loyalton, harvested the largest, legally taken bear in the 2009 hunting season, a 668-pound male shot in Jefferson Township, Dauphin County.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission believes the mountains and forests of Pennsylvania hold the potential for another record bear harvest in the 2010 hunting seasons for bruins, which begin with an archery opener on Monday, Nov. 15, and follow with the firearms season opener on Saturday, Nov. 20.

“Conditions this year are favorable for another record harvest,” according to Mark Ternent, commission black bear biologist.

First and foremost, he noted, “Bear populations are up in many parts of the state relative to past years.”

And, that’s despite the second largest bear harvest on record coming just last year, when hunters killed 3,512 bruins, and the third large (3,458) in 2008. (The record, set in 2005, stands at 4,164.)

In addition, Ternent said, “Hunter participation is expected to be good, based on the number of bear licenses being purchased.”

The new Saturday opener to the rifle hunting season for bear is widely expected to draw substantially more hunters into the field, which generally means the bruins will be moving more and becoming more available to the hunters.

The rifle season has traditionally opened on a Monday, when some hunters could not take time away from work or school.

And, archers have a greatly expand season this year: five days in place of the previous two to spend more time in their stands waiting for a passing bear.

A third reason Ternent expects a strong harvest this year is the bountiful mast crop across most of the state.

“Acorns are plentiful, which tends to keep bears out of dens and active through the fall hunting season,” he explained.

However, he cautioned, “the only unknown is if we will have favorable weather for hunters on opening day.

“Weather can have a huge impact on the season’s outcome,” impacting the number of hunters afield, the amount of time they spend there, tracking conditions – made more favorable by fresh snow – and more.”

Another wild card that no one can predict is the amount of pre-season work hunters have put in before the opening day.

Hunters who have spent time scouting prospective bear-hunting spots, have found abundant and fresh sign of bruins, and determined travel routes being used by the bears have a much better chance of seeing bears during the limited period of the hunting season.

Ternent offered, “Signs to look for while scouting include droppings; bedding areas, which are scratched out depressions, usually at the base of a tree or log; and active trails with tracks.”

“In beech stands, look for fresh claw marks on tree trunks indicating that bears are feeding in the area, and in oak stands look for fresh droppings that are almost completely composed of acorns bits. Either of these signs suggests bears are feeding nearby and, if food conditions are right, they will likely still be there come hunting season.”

Look for bears in the thickest cover you can find, such as swamps and bogs, mountain laurel and rhododendron thickets, north-facing slopes, regenerating timber-harvest areas, wind-blown areas with lots of downed trees, and remote sections of river bottoms.

In the event of success, hunters need to be prepared to remove the harvested bear from the forest, which is a much larger task than those unfamiliar with it generally assume./p

Every year Pennsylvania hunters tag several bears weighing more than 500 pounds, and since 1992 a half-dozen have been killed with estimated live weights of 800 pounds or more.

The largest, legally taken bear of 2009 was a 668-pound male shot in Jefferson Township, Dauphin County, by Edward Bechtel, of Loyalton.

Even smaller bears, in the 200-pound range, are unexpectedly difficult to bring out of the forest. They are a rolling, flopping, folding, tangle-grabbing mass of dead-weight, substantially different from the relative stiffness of a freshly harvested deer, game that most hunters are much familiar with “dragging” from the forest.